A Brief History of Modern Scholarship on Western Palmistry

This article is part of the Divination Hub.

The American scholar Hardin Craig (1875 – 1968), editor of The Works of John Metham (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, & Co., 1916), provides a good first assessment of the literature on Western palmistry. His first impressions are mostly accurate, such as noting how many chiromancers list many ancient and modern authorities on the subjects of chiromancy and physiognomy, many of whom either did not write about them at all, wrote very little if they did, and more often than not, wrote about physiognomy. Craig rightly observes that Western palmistry has largely remained unchanged since its advent during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Generally speaking, palmistry saw a sharp decline by the seventeenth century, only to be revived and drastically changed during the nineteenth century French occult revival.

Caption: Hardin Craig in 1918.

Craig had devised a classification for the collection of chiromantic works but I have deemed obsolete here based on my new discoveries; therefore, it has been discarded. Nevertheless, those who follow the academic history of palmistry may want to know about his five categories. The reader ought to keep in mind that Craig was the first scholar to take a serious approach to palmistry, so his categories are rather nebulous and imperfect. The first is the simplest, based on a chiromantic hand with three principal lines and chiromantic signs but nothing astrological. The epitome of this class is the labeled chiromantic hands like Dextra Viri, Sinistra Mulieris, but also includes the Chiromantia Parva. The Chiromantia Parva (The Small Chiromancy) is a distinct and separate text from the thirteenth century treatise called Dextra Viri, Sinistra Mulieris (The Right Hand of a Man, the Left Hand of a Woman); in fact, I have identified three versions of the Chiromantia Parva which I label as versions A, B, and C. I have collated, translated, and wrote about the Chiromantia Parva and its different versions. Here, Craig makes reference to what I am tentatively calling Version C of the Chiromantia Parva, otherwise known as Liber Chiromantiae Incerto Autore in Antiochus Tibertus’ De Cheiromantia Libri III (A Book of Chiromancy by an Unknown Author in Antiochus Tibertus' On the Three Books of Chiromancy). The second class is the Summa Chiromantiae (The Best of Chiromancy) which he says has four principal lines, the astrological assignments to the parts of the hands, and the various chiromantic regions are described such as the great triangle, the quadrangle, the sister lines, and so forth. Of course, a summa is a great compendium gathering the best kind of knowledge on a subject; naturally, the Summa Chiromantiae is a compilation of various sources. While Craig was likely aware of this fact, he presumes that these sources are agreeable in their approach and understanding of palmistry; a closer examination reveals that this is simply not true. In my studies I have found that the Summa Chiromantiae is comprised of at least seven major source works compiled into a single volume. These sources are diverse in their understanding of palmistry, and they originate from different authors and scribes at different points in history. This presents problems too complex for such a simple classification tool. The third class is thought to be an expanded version of the Summa Chiromantiae in which the astrological planets are given greater attention, and the lines and sister-lines are discussed together, and there are many drawings of the chiromantic hands. In other words, Craig had the vision that palmistry itself was evolving and expanding upon its astrological content. This class includes the Secantur fragment (and presumably, the Divinis Litteris, which is the title I give to the Latin version of the lost Greek cheiroscopy according to Helenus of Troy, and the accompanying material as found in the illustrated Ex Divina Philosophorum Academia, or EDPA. Note that the EDPA is one of two witnesses to the cheiroscopy according to Helenus of Troy.). The third class appears to be defined by the perception that these works are to be understood as an integrated, holistic, and agreeable doctrine of palmistry rather than recognizing these separate works as distinct in their thought, authorships, and dates, which were simply compiled and recopied as such over time. The fourth class is the treatise falsely attributed to Aristotle which Craig defines as having no astrological references to the planets and the arrangement of material has the four principal lines treated before the discussion of the great triangle. He references a few different manuscripts, the Cyromancia Aristotilis Cum Figuris which is comprised of two separate volumes with two distinct authorships and histories, is among them. The entire matter of the Pseudo-Aristotelian works of chiromancy is complex. For other Pseudo-Aristotelian works of chiromancy, see the discussion below regarding the Schmitt and Knox classification system. The fifth and final class is the chiromantic tract of Master Roderiguez of Mallorca. A closer examination of all these chiromantic treatises will reveal to the reader obvious distinctions that break Craig's classification system and uncover the surprising interdependency of these sources, leading to a new stemma of how these sources interrelate. Craig’s enduring contribution to the field is his editorial work on the English scholar John Metham. I have created new English translations of all the texts mentioned here.

Caption: Lynn Thorndike.

The American historian Lynn Thorndike (1882 – 1965), the author of the eight-volume work entitled History of Magic and Experimental Science (1923-1958), also surveyed numerous chiromantic works, and his contributions of identifying, cataloguing, and summarizing these writings remains profitable. These chiromantic works are discussed in his book and also listed in the Speculum journal article co-authored with Pearl Kibre (1968). Thorndike also published a Latin edition of the Summa Cyromanciae in the Speculum journal (1965). I have made a complete English translation of the Summa Cyrromanciae, identifying its seven major sources.

Caption: Pseudo-Aristoteles Latinus: A Guide to Latin Works Falsely Attributed to Aristotle Before 1500 by Schmitt and Knox (1985).

In 1985, two scholars named Schmitt and Knox published a guide to the Latin works falsely attributed to Aristotle before 1500. According to their classification system, there are six chiromantic treatises falsely attributed to Aristotle. Now with my new English translations and discoveries, this classification system is also made obsolete. However, for the sake of completeness, their system is given here. The Additional 15,236 manuscript held at the British Library in London is classed as Chiromantia I. Additional 15,236 shows a strong affinity for the chiromantic tract of Master Roderiguez of Mallorca wherein the chiromancer Formica’s lost writings are preserved in a fragmentary state. Formica, recognized as one of the oldest chiromancers, appears in the chiromantic compilation attributed to Peter of Abano and now preserved in the Anastasis (1504) of Bartholomeus Cocles. Formica is known for his special use of the technical term “the breaker line (abruptio)” which is another name for the table line found in the chiromantic hand because it lies upon the palm where the fingers make a crease when flexed. Although Additional 15,236 does not follow Roderiguez’s treatise exactly, a preliminary conclusion is that it presents a partial variant of either Roderiguez's work or, more likely, selections from the lost writings of Formica. Additional 15,236 also shows agreement with Chiromantia Parva (Version B). The American historian Lynn Thorndike provided a partial English translation which he published in the journal Speculum. I have translated portions of Additional 15,236. New research and a translation of Additional 15,236 is still needed. Now the first volume of the Cyromancia Aristotilis Cum Figuris (The Chiromancy of Aristotle with Figures), the Pseudo-Aristotle treatise, is classed as Chiromantia II. The Chiromantia Parva (what I call Version A) is classed as Chiromantia III. The second volume of Pseudo-Aristotle (i.e., Cyromancia Aristotilis Cum Figuris) is classed as Chiromantia IV, and Chiromantia Parva (what I call Version B) is classed as Chiromantia V. Lastly, the Secantur fragment, or what I call A Proem on the Three Divisions of the Hand, is classed as Chiromantia VI. I have translated all of these Latin texts into English.

The American classical philologist Roger Ambrose Pack of the University of Michigan (1907-1993) published a semi-critical Latin edition for each of the two volumes of the titled work called Cyromancia Aristotilis Cum Figuris (The Chiromancy of Aristotle with Figures) and published at Ulm in 1490 (1969 and 1972). Joined with R. Hamilton, Pack also published a semi-critical Latin edition of Master Roderiguez’s chiromantic tract (1971) which he discovered shared common material with volume 2 of the Cyromancia Aristotilis Cum Figuris. Pack also published an article called “On the Greek Chiromantic Fragment” in which a fifteenth century Greek cheiroscopic text was discovered by Franz Boll and Franz Cumont in the early twentieth century. Pack’s article is valuable for its study of the anatomical terms expressed in the Greek text (1972). Lastly, Pack gives a brief survey of chiromantic and physiognomic influences in ancient times and the sixteenth century, including a Latin edition of Giovanni Francesco Pico della Mirandola’s (1470 – 1533) attack against the chiromancers (1978). I have produced English translations of the Cyromancia Aristotilis Cum Figuris (volumes 1 and 2) as well as Master Roderiguez's chiromantic tract.

Caption: Portrait of Eadwine, the director of the famous Eadwine Psalter. The Eadwine Psalter contains one of the oldest chiromantic tracts. The first English translation was made by Charles Burnett in 1987.

Charles Burnett (b. 1951) of the Warburg Institute published two separate works about chiromancy. The first is “The Earliest Chiromancy in the West” in the Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes (1987) in which he presents a Latin edition of the chiromancy of the Eadwine Psalter with English translation. The second is “Chiromancy: Supplement. The Principal Latin Texts on Chiromancy Extant in the Middle Ages” (Variorum Collected Studies Series as Magic and Divination in the Middle Ages, 1996) which is divided into four parts: (1) Burnett formulates his own assessment of the Latin chiromantic tradition based on his findings and the previous literature, (2) a Latin edition and English translation of an inconsequential and short chiromancy from Sloane 323, (3) a Latin edition and English translation of the Chiromantia Parva which I have now identified and labeled as Version B, the short form, and (4) a Latin edition and English translation of Dextra Viri, Sinistra Mulieris (The Right Hand of a Man, the Left Hand of a Woman). I have now assembled additional manuscripts to the “Hands” tradition. I have also made new English translations of all these chiromantic tracts, building upon the work of Burnett and making new discoveries and interpretations.

More recently, the linguist Stefano Rapisarda of the University of Catania has published his findings on many of these early Latin chiromancies with Latin editions and French translations (2005, 2020). Also, the historian Alberto Bardi at Tsinghua University published two articles on the Greek fragment along with rediscoveries of additional manuscripts, finding one dated as early as the fourteenth century, plus he made a new Greek edition and translated it into English (2017, 2022). Unfortunately, Bardi did not take Pack’s article seriously enough when it came to translating the anatomical terms, leading to missteps in understanding the proper placement of the three principal lines of the Greek cheiroscopic hand. I have written extensively upon the Greek fragment, followed Pack's direction on preserving the technical and anatomical terms, and made new reintepretations of this significant text.

Caption: Fred Getting's The Book of the Hand (1965) provides a mediocre survey of the history of Western palmistry for a general audience.

Now there are other scholarly publications on the art of chiromancy such as Michael R. Lynn (2018), but they are very niche or cursory in their studies. While modern palmists such as Fred Gettings (1937 - 2013), Andrew Fitzherbert (b. 1949), and Christopher Jones make admirable attempts to cover the history of palmistry, they certainly do not show any proficiency of Latin or Greek. In my opinion, their writings lack the rigors of sound scholarship as they are driven primarily in their belief and bias of palmistry's efficacy. Much of today’s publishing market on palmistry is saturated and derived from the nineteenth-century French palmists d’Arpentigny and Desbarrolles which are easily identified by the exposition on the seven types of hands, the early twentieth-century writings of the Irishman William John Warner nicknamed “Cheiro”, and occasionally snippets from the Early Modern English translations and works of Fabian Withers (1558), George Wharton (1652), and Richard Saunders (1653, 1663).

In conclusion, the classification systems of Hardin Craig and Schmitt and Knox are made obsolete with the new English translations and research discoveries that I have made. My work now stands upon the foundations of Lynn Thorndike, Roger Ambrose Pack and R. Hamilton, Franz Boll and Franz Cumont, Alberto Bardi, and Charles Burnett; it is my hope and belief that my writings advance the study of Western palmistry, and that someday soon, I will be able to share it with all of you.

Bibliography

Boll, Franz (ed.), Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum: Codices Germanicos, vol. 7, Brussels: Henrik Lamertin, 1908, 236-244.

Bardi, Alberto, “On the Greek cheiroscopic Fragment: An Update,” Phasis 20, 2017, 4-38

____, “The Cosmos in Your Hand: A Note on Regiomontanus’s Astrological Interests,” in Centaurus, 64.2 (2022), 361-396. https://dx.doi.org/10.1484J.CNT.5.13245. 

Burnett, Charles, “Earliest Chiromancy,” X.189 in Magic and Divination in the Middle Ages: Texts and Techniques in the Islamic and Christian Worlds, Collected Studies Series, (Aldershot: Variorum Ashgate, 1996). 

Craig, Hardin (ed.), The Works of John Metham, London: Early English Text Society by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, & Co., Ltd. and Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, 1906, xix-xxix.

Fitzherbert, Andrew, The Palmist’s Companion: A History and Bibliography of Palmistry, Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1992.

Gettings, Fred. Book of the Hand, (New York: Hamlyn, 1969).

Jones, Christopher, The History of Hand Reading (self-published), 1989-1994, 2001, 2019. www.handreading.nz.

www.handreading.nz/history/index.htm.

Lynn, Michael R., "The Curious Science: Chiromancy in Early Modern France," in Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft (University of Pennsylvania Press), Vol. 13, 2017.

Pack, Roger A. "A Pseudo-Aristotelian Chiromancy." Archives D'histoire Doctrinale Et Littéraire Du Moyen Age 36 (1969): 189-241. Accessed February 17, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/45134410. 

Pack, Roger A. "Pseudo-Aristoteles: Chiromantia." Archives D'histoire Doctrinale Et Littéraire Du Moyen Âge 39 (1972): 289-320. Accessed February 17, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44403209.

S. Rapisarda, Manuali medievali di chiromanzia, Traduzioni e note di Rosa Maria Piccione e Stefano Rapisarda, Carocci, Roma 2005 - ISBN: 88-430-3261-5. [Rec. di Franco Cardini, “Il Sole-24 ore”, Domenica 7 agosto 2005; A. Varvaro in “Medievo Romanzo”, ML Di Pietro, “Quaderni medievali”, 60 (2005) pp. 287-292; M. Leonardi in Deutsches Archiv fur Erforschung des Mittelalters, 62, (2006), p. 293.]

S. Rapisarda and T. Hunt, Anglonorman Chiromancies, Editions Classiques Garnier, Paris 2020 - ISBN 978-2-406-09614-6

Thorndike, Lynn.  “Chiromancy in Medieval Latin Manuscripts” Speculum 40, no. 4 (1965): 674-706.

____. A History of Magic and Experimental Science, 8 vols.  New York: Columbia University Press, 1923-1958.

____. “The Latin Pseudo-Aristotle and Medieval Occult Science.” The Journal of English and Germanic Philology 21, no. 2 (1922): 229-58.

Thorndike, Lynn and Peter Kibre. A Catalogue of Incipits of Mediaeval Scientific Writings in Latin, The Mediaeval Academy of America, publication no. 29 (Cambridge, MA, 1963).

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